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As usual, a lot has happened in the past week! This newsletter covers the best independent news content on the upcoming elections, LGBTQ+ issues, Halloween-appropriate film, affordable housing, and lots more.
2022 Elections
With Election Day just around the corner, let's visit election content from around the OptOut network.
In a key Senate race, Pennsylvania Liutenant Governor John Fetterman took on Republican TV personality Mehmet Oz in their only debate this week.
In Georgia, voters could determine control of the Senate, STATES NEWSROOM explains.
Speaking of Georgia, on THE LAURA FLANDERS SHOW hosts Ray McClendon and Steven Rosenfeld, the editors of a new book, The Georgia Way: How to Win Elections, an oral history intended to record the strategies used in Georgia to turn out overlooked voters and spark civic involvement across the US.
You've probably seen some election ads recently. Political advertising is an enormous industry, and TV stations benefit, although not as much as one might think, according to IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH.
There are other important elections coming up around the world, including in Brazil, where leftwing former president Lula da Silva has a good shot at ousting far-right authoritarian president Jair Bolsonaro. THE NATION has an analysis of the election, which takes place today.
Welcome back to OptOut LGBTQ+ with Liana DeMasi!
Conversion therapy was banned in Akron, Ohio this week, according to THE BUCKEYE FLAME. This is a win for the LGBTQ+ community in Ohio, since Akron became the tenth municipality to ban the practice, protecting queer and trans youth from being subject to abuse aimed at changing “a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” These “therapies”—which are often conducted at Christian camps and have ranged from electric shock treatments to physical labor and sexual abuse—are only banned in 20 U.S. states.
If you haven’t heard, Chelsea Manning released a memoir this month, README.txt, about her transparency advocacy, her experience in prison after releasing around 750,000 military documents in 2010, her gender transition, and the tech-savvy childhood that started it all. Independent journalist Ryan Harvey and THE REAL NEWS NETWORK, in collaboration with Red Emma’s, a self-proclaimed radical bookstore in Baltimore, hosted a conversation with Manning this week about her whistleblower status, the book, and what right we have to the truth.
MICHIGAN ADVANCE examines the abhorrent anti-LGBTQ+ policies that have sprung up across the nation in recent years, especially bills aimed at undermining the safety and validity of our nation’s youth.
PRISM reports on a similar story in Virginia school districts.
For each LGBTQ+ newsletter section I write, I find an article, podcast, or video about this exact subject, which indicates a few things. This kind of legislation is ceaseless state violence, but we are unrelenting in our pursuit of justice, education, and advocacy.
The MICHIGAN ADVANCE article speaks to “menstrual history” mandates for student athletes in Florida schools, an effort aimed at keeping trans girls out of sports. It also mentions the “draconian legislation” introduced by Michigan Republicans last week that would put parents of trans kids at risk of life imprisonment if they help their children seek gender-affirming care. Cited in the reporting was the Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, which found that 45% of LGBTQ+ youth have “seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.”
I write this newsletter from Brooklyn, New York, where our LGBTQ+ children are as protected as their straight and cis counterparts, but I also write this from a place of knowing—and perhaps a place of fear—that nothing is for certain in the ever-changing, polarized world that we live in. I urge you to continue getting your news from ethical, independent news outlets like those in the OptOut network. Advocacy starts with understanding, and these children require a voice, a platform, and an audience.
Boo!
It's Halloween tomorrow, so what better reason to share scary movie analysis from the OptOut network!
In JACOBIN, Eileen Jones tells us about the John Carpenter classic film, They Live.
They Live is one of John Carpenter’s ever-more-revered films, because of its extraordinary prescience in depicting the fallout from the Reagan Revolution that overwhelmed American society in a disastrously complete way starting in the 1980s.
Nick Estes and Sina Rahmani discuss the specter of settler colonialism in another Carpenter classic, Halloween, on THE RED NATION PODCAST.
Listen on the OptOut app or wherever you get your podcasts.
And in case you're not gonna binge-watch horror movies tomorrow night, here are some other options, brought to you by HELL GATE.
In Other News
Michael Jefferson argues for Black and Brown unity in politics in a NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT op-ed.
Host Eric Draitser speaks with Eric chats with COUNTERPUNCH co-editor Joshua Frank about his new book, Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America, and the dangers of nuclear weapons and nuclear power.
This week, a rightwing bigot and conspiracy theorist broke into the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and assaulted her husband, Paul. STATES NEWSROOM via MICHIGAN ADVANCE reports.
NEW YORK FOCUS and THE CITY investigated the fate of a Gowanus, Brooklyn rezoning proposal, which will include at most half of the previously planned affordable housing units, thanks to New York City Council Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Shahana Hanif.
Speaking of New York, did you know that OptOut is launching a New York newsletter? Journalist Samira Asma-Sadeque will send out the first edition of OptOut New York on Election Day (November 8).
Meanwhile, in Florida, according to PROGRESS REPORT, a ballot measure on affordable housing in Orange County, Florida, is in peril.
On Thursday night, the Florida Appellate Court sided with landlord and real estate lobbyists in a legal challenge to prevent voters from having their say on the rent stabilization measure.
For I HATE IT HERE AND NEVER WANT TO LEAVE and THE LEVER, Jordan Uhl writes about Big Oil's huge third-quarter profits. Must just be unavoidable inflation, right?
Thanks as always for following the important work of the independent, trustworthy news outlets in the OptOut network. See you soon!
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